I bought the invitations from the party store and planned a mystery party. My Mom, sister and brother-in-law all helped with the decorations. My sister and sister-in-law dressed up in Halloween costumes as Shaggy and Fred. We put up several blue,yellow and orange balloons around the house and outside. We hung crepe paper in the family room and dining room and a Scooby sign. We had a Scooby Doo table cloth with Scooby Plates napkins, cups and a Scooby hat on the dining room table. There were Scooby figurines, confetti and ribbons on the table also. We had 14 children and the table was just big enough for everyone. Upon arrival, each child received a Scooby Doo trick or treat bag (I picked these up after Halloween). That was were they kept all of the loot from the party.

They then decorated Scooby Doo cookies on a nice long table I had. This required a lot of help. I had my Mom, 2 sisters, my sister and law and myself spreading the frosting on for the children, so all the children had to do was put the candy eyes and other face decorations on. Near the end of the cookie decorating, my husband started playing scary haunted music in another room (our living room). He then told them about the trouble causing ghost on our street. The ghost seems to ccause trouble when people come over. The ghost is trying to scare the children away because he does not want them to find the secret treasure.

They then found a Scooby book with a clue inside it (I wrote all of the clues on parchment paper-an idea to make the paper is on the internet). The first clue was "Soon you will find why you were sent, your first game is in in the basement" They then ran into the basement, which we had decorated to be somewhat haunted. I had balloon ghosts hanging up, haunted house lights, a head of a skeleton that lit up, a bat flying around, one of those talking grave stones, and various skeletons hanging from the skeleton and the bat pinata. My son loved helping my husband and I decorate the basement the night before the party.

They loved this room and whenever they dissapeared we could find them down in the basement. They busted open the pinata rather quickly and found the next clue mixed in with all of the candy and ghost suckers. It read, "Mashing Monsters is what it is all about, go have fun and twist and shout" This lead the children back upstairs into the living room, where the "Monster Mash" was playing on the stereo. The children played freeze dance until another clue I had in a bowl with confetti came flying from the ceiling. I had my sister fling it up in the air, while I was stoping and starting the stereo.

The next clue was "Go to the place where you would dine, look under the plates for another sign!" They rushed to the dining room and looked under the Scooby plates and found puzzle pieces for a Scooby Doo puzzle. (I blew up a picture of Scooby Doo I found on the internet at Kinkos and painted it and glued it to poster board and cut it out in puzzle shapes.) Once they solved the puzzle on the same long table they decorated the cookies on (I had a lot of family helping me and they cleared the table for me), there was another clue written on the puzzle. It read, "With puzzles complete, it's time to run, pin a bone on Scooby, sure will be fun," They then ran into the living room and played pin the bone on Scooby, everyone won a prize. I had different prizes in cauldrons I bought after Halloween. I went to Kinkos and had the same Scooby I had for the puzzle and had them increase it in size as big as they could. I then painted it and stuck it to the wall with double sided tape. I made orange bones with the childrens names on them. After every child had a turn, I had one extra bone and that had the clue on it. The children where quite into the clues.

They kept looking around for more clues and when they would find one the person who found it would get so excited. Then I would have one of the older children read them or I would read them. And they listened really well. The clue on the bone was, "there are mummies all around, go wrap your partner and be found" They then picked 4 kids to wrap. They wraped them with crepe paper. Whichever team used the whole roll of crepe paper up and had their mummy wrapped first, won. They then played a version of "Marco Polo" Mummies call out "Scooby! and the players respond Doo.

The next clue they found laying on a speaker in the family room where they did the mummy thing. It read, "In the next game, you will be bursting with joy, so break the ballons and get a toy!" My husband brought in the cork board, which I had tacked balloons with a number in each one and the next clue was in one of the balloons as well. Each child popped a balloon (I had them use a push pin, but that didn't work so my husband handed me a small tongs and they used that) some of them had a few issues with the tongs, but they all wanted to use it. They then had to find the number and they ran over by my sister who was giving out the prizes. All of the prizes had a number on them and they one the prize with the corresponding number in the balloon they popped. I had all Scooby Doo prizes, a book, coloring books, Scooby lip gloss for the girls (I had them pop a pink or yellow balloon), a Scooby bouncy balloon, Scooby Balls, a Scooby PDA (It plays music and records birthdays and other stuff) a Scooby straw, a Scooby glass, etc.

My son popped the balloon with the next clue in it. He was so excited! It was the final clue, and by the time, I had a chance to read it after the balloon popping all of the children where in the basement. I got them all back upstairs by telling them I was going to read the next clue, "Grab your nose and go toot, toot, toot, it's time to find the treasure and grab some loot." They then searched the house and found the treasure in the bathroom bathtub behind the shower curtain. My husband was covered in a sheet and had the treasure chest next to him, when the kids tried to get the treasure he yelled, "get away from my treasure,". They got it from him and carried into the living room and went crazy trying to get 4 things each out of it. I had wrapped a styrofoam cooler with tin foil and added black construction paper bands around it to make it look like a treasure chest. I hid the loot in a lot of shell noodles and cooked linguini. They thought that it was kind of gross. I hid butterfly rings, snakes, bugs, glow in the dark things and chocolate coins.

They then went to the dining room and ate pizza and cake. My husband made the pizzas. I baked an old fashioned yellow cake and decorated it with Wilton frosting (you can buy it from the Wilton store, Hobby Lobby or Michaels). It comes in a box and you add the milk and butter. It tasted just like a bakery cake frosting. My son helped decorate the cake with Wilton sprinkles, Wilton bat candies and #6 candle (which he had to have) and Scooby candle, and my brother-in-law wrote Happy Birthday Christopher on the cake. We sang Happy Birthday and How old are You? He had a big smile on his face and said 6! It was so cute. He then opened presents.

Everything went so fast. With 14 kids, it went by faster then with less kids, (I had a 11 at a Clifford party, on his 5th birthay). It lasted 1 1/2 hours and then they went outside and played freeze tag until their parents came. We live in Chicago area so we were lucky it was a sunny day and 50 some degrees out. My sisters and sister-in-law got all of their cookies in ziploc bags and put them in the Scooby bags, while my husband and I were outside with the children. My son came inside whenever a parent came and got the childs Scooby bag and their goodie bag (I had Scooby pencils a Scooby dog tag, a Scooby blow-out a Scooby sucker, dem bones candy and 2 gummy hamburgers in the goodie bags)and handed it to them and thanked them for coming and the present. They had a lot of fun solving the mystery. And, my son said he had lots of fun at his Scooby Doo Mystery Birthday party. It was lots of fund to plan and it was great having all of the ideas from this site to help get me started. It was also very helpful to have family at my house during the party. We were all kept pretty busy throughout the party.